This invention pertains to electrical signal and power connections to heavy duty truck tractors. More particularly, it pertains to an integrated arrangement for making power, telephone, cable television and other electrical signal connections to such tractors which include driver sleeping accommodations.
Heavy duty truck tractors are increasingly equipped with driver sleeping accommodations in the rear portions of the cabs of the tractors. Such accommodation units are commonly known as xe2x80x9csleeper boxes.xe2x80x9d Some sleeper boxes are comparatively spacious. A sleeper box serves as a home on the road for the tractor driver. Operators of large fleets of heavy duty truck tractors and trailers are increasingly equipping their tractors with sleeper boxes in an effort to reduce high turnover rates of employed drivers. Fleet operators and others are equipping the sleeper boxes with such amenities as television sets and telephones, as well as AC power capacity. The objective is to enable a driver to do more than sleep in the tractor during times when the truck rig is overnighting at a truck stop or the like.
In parallel with the trend described above, operators of truck stops have begun to make electrical power, cable television, and telephone connections available in the areas of truck stops where drivers park their rigs (tractor and trailer sets). In cold climates, electrical power for operating engine block heaters in truck diesel engines also is made available by truck stops. Those electrical functions are provided at posts distributed throughout the parking area. A driver desiring to make use of those functions can plug suitable conductors, e.g., extension cords, from the trailer to the function outlets on the post. Each such extension cord currently has its own separately mounted connection to the tractor, either to a corresponding connection site accessible at the exterior of the tractor or to a desired place within the tractor. In the latter situation, the extension cords may enter the tractor through a partially open window in a door to the tractor. Each separate connection site in the exterior of the tractor is associated with a separate hole in the tractor surface, and with separate wiring in the tractor to outlets in the tractor, notably in the sleeper box.
Currently, the procedures and the equipment used to provide such convenience connections to and within truck tractors and their sleeper boxes have been developed and exist on an ad hoc basis. A need exists for arrangements which enable a tractor manufacturer or a tractor owner to provide electrical power and signal convenience functions within a tractor more efficiently.
This invention addresses the need noted above by providing an integrated multi-function junction box which is mountable at a single location in the exterior wall of a tractor, more preferably in the exterior wall of a sleeper box which is a component of the tractor. The junction box has a self-closing gasketed access door. The door is openable relative to the box to afford access to a preferably grounded alternating current receptacle, to a telephone jack, to a coaxial cable connector, and to such additional power or signal connectors as may be desired. The receptacle, the jack and the connectors can be components of a wiring harness which, when the junction box is suitably mounted to be accessible at the exterior of the tractor sleeper box, enables the junction box connection moieties to be connected to appropriate outlets or terminals within the sleeper box or elsewhere in the tractor.
In the manufacture of heavy duty truck tractors, it is common to fabricate sleeper boxes as modules which can be mounted to the tractor chassis immediately to the rear of the tractor cab. Sleeper boxes can be made in a range of sizes. Other sleeper compartments are made integral with the tractor cab. The junction box and wiring harness system provided by this invention simplifies and lowers the cost of manufacture of a sleeper box or tractor cab having the power and communication features and functions noted above. Also, the reliability of those functions is enhanced.
A computer in the tractor can be connected via the telephone connection or via the cable TV connection to the Internet or such other computer networks as may be desired.
In one of its embodiments, the invention provides a power and communication assembly for vehicles including truck tractors, motor homes, recreational vehicles and the like. The assembly includes a base which is adapted to be mounted to a vehicle exterior surface to present a front face of the base to the exterior of the vehicle and to present a rear face of the base inwardly of that surface. A plurality of openings are formed through the base inwardly of a perimeter of the base. Each opening is defined and configured for receiving and mounting a respective selected connection moiety for cooperation of that moiety, adjacent the base front face, with a complementary connection moiety. The connection moieties which are mountable in the base openings are selected from a group which includes electrical power connectors, telephone circuit connectors, coaxial cable connectors, fiber optic cable connectors, and connectors on cords from infrared wireless communications receivers. A cover is hinged to the base and is biased into a closure relation to the base in which the cover protects connection moieties mounted in the base openings.